New Grand Rapids coffee house owner plans to offer high-end drinks

Press photos/Paul L. Newby IITrevor Corlett stands in front of the building at Monroe Center NW and Ottawa Avenue that used to house Two Choppers deli. He plans to open MadCap Coffee there in the fall.

GRAND RAPIDS -- A high-profile downtown corner will be home to an upscale coffee shop right next door to, you guessed it, another java joint.

MadCap Coffee, 98 Monroe Center NW, plans to roast its own beans, host local music and emphasize the quality and beauty of it drinks over the size of the cups they come in. It is expected to open in October.

The cafe signed a lease for the ground floor and basement at the northeastern corner of Ottawa and Monroe Center, which has been empty since Two Choppers deli closed in 2006.

Its next-door neighbor is Local Mocha, a shop Steve Sumners and his wife, Mary, have owned for three years.

MadCap is the idea of Trevor Corlett, a former Cornerstone University student who left school to get into the coffee business.

Before returning to Grand Rapids, he was a partner in Moon Monkey Coffee Company in Bourbonnais, Ill.

If all goes as planned, MadCap will join more than 10 places selling high-end coffee within a few blocks, including six on Monroe Center.

"For a lot of people, it seems pretty stupid," Corlett said.

"I'm pretty aggressive in what I'm doing right now," he added.

"Our vision and what we do with coffee is pretty unique to this area," Corlett said. "I'm pretty excited. Competition is kind of a good thing. It helps differentiate us from everybody else."

MadCap's plans are being hatched on the heels of the closure of Four Friends Coffee earlier this month less than a block away.

The owners of burger and hot dog restaurant Johnny's Lunch are planning another coffee shop in the old Four Friends, 136 Monroe Center NW, by fall.

Local Mocha will adapt and, hopefully, survive, Steve Sumners said.

"It'll definitely be a challenge, but I guess we have to continue to market that we are local and we support many of the local businesses more than the other shops," he said.

"We just hope that our regulars do continue to frequent our store."

Corlett expects MadCap to stand out by offering a comfortable place to relax, roasting its own beans and educating customers about the quality of coffee drinks, none of which will be larger than 16 ounces.

"The type of coffee we're doing tends to be a little pricier," said Corlett, noting he hopes to sell the shop's fresh roasted beans to some higher-end restaurants in the area.

"The great thing about coffee is it can be as complex or nuanced as wine or microbrewed beers nowadays."

Baristas will be trained to prepare the beverages, with some producing "latte art" -- drinks topped with decoratively poured steamed milk and froth.

Several former Moon Monkey employees plan to join him at MadCap, Corlett said.

"It was really important for me getting started from the moment we opened the gates that I had people behind the bar that were trained and ready to go," he said.

The storefront was renovated and the 1,500-square-foot main floor gutted after Two Choppers left.

The building is owned by VanderWeide Properties LLC, a company owned by members of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos' family.